The first 1931 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final took place on 6 September 1931 at Croke Park, Dublin. It was the 44th All-Ireland final and was contested by Cork and Kilkenny. The match ended in a 1-5 apiece draw. The replay took place at the same venue five weeks later on 11 October 1931. Once again, the sides finished level with both scoring 2-5. An unprecedented second replay took place on 1 November 1931. On that occasion the Leinster champions lost to their Munster opponents on a score line of 5-8 to 3-4.

1.
Kilkenny GAA
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The Kilkenny County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland and is responsible for Gaelic Games in County Kilkenny. The county board has its office and main grounds at Nowlan Park and is also responsible for Kilkenny inter-county teams in all codes at all levels. The Kilkenny branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in 1887, Brian Cody has been manager of the Kilkenny senior hurling team since the 1999 championship. Mark Bergin will be senior hurling captain for the 2017 season, in 1922 Kilkenny won their sixteenth Leinster title before later lining out in the All-Ireland final against Tipperary. In an exciting game Tipperary were winning by three points with three minutes to go, but Kilkenny fought back to two goals to secure the victory. It would be years before Kilkenny would beat Tipperary in the championship again. Further Leinster titles soon followed, however, Galway accounted for ‘the Cats’ in the All-Ireland semi-finals, in 1926 Kilkenny faced Cork on a snow-covered Croke Park in the All-Ireland final, however, victory on that occasion went to ‘the Rebels’. The 1930s proved to be one of Kilkenny’s most successful decades, the 1930s saw ‘the Cats’ battle it out with Limerick for the title of team of the decade. In 1931 Kilkenny were back as Leinster champions before squaring up to Cork in the All-Ireland final, at half-time Cork lead, however, Kilkenny fought back to secure a draw. The replay saw Lory Meagher give one of his most outstanding displays on the hurling field, once again Cork lead at half-time, however, Kilkenny fought back to force a second draw. In the third game of the thrilling series Kilkenny were without the services of Meagher. On that occasion Cork secured the victory by seven points,1932 saw Kilkenny back in the All-Ireland final. Clare, surprise winners in Munster, provided the opposition, in an exciting game ‘the Cats’ won by a goal and claimed their first championship in a decade. The following year Kilkenny were back in their third championship decider. Once again, the game was an affair, however. In 1935 Kilkenny regained their Leinster crown before lining out in the All-Ireland final, Limerick provided the opposition once again. In a close game Kilkenny beat the Munster men by a single point,1936 saw an All-Ireland rematch between Kilkenny and Limerick, however, on this occasion Limerick had the measure of ‘the Cats’ and trounced them by 5–6 to 1–5. The following year Kilkenny had a chance to redeem themselves in their third championship decider

2.
Croke Park
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Croke Park is a GAA stadium located in Dublin, Ireland. Named in honour of Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is often called Croker by some GAA fans and it serves both as the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Since 1884 the site has been used primarily by the GAA to host Gaelic games, most notably the annual All-Ireland finals in football and hurling. Both the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2003 Special Olympics, during the construction of the Aviva Stadium, Croke Park hosted games played by the Ireland national rugby union team and the Republic of Ireland national football team. The area now known as Croke Park was owned in the 1880s by Maurice Butterly and known as the City and Suburban Racecourse, from 1890 it was also used by the Bohemian Football Club. In 1901 Jones Road hosted the IFA Cup football final when Cliftonville defeated Freebooters, recognising the potential of the Jones Road sports ground a journalist and GAA member, Frank Dineen, borrowed much of the £3,250 asking price and bought the ground in 1908. In 1913 the GAA came into ownership of the plot when they purchased it from Dineen for £3,500. The ground was then renamed Croke Park in honour of Archbishop Thomas Croke, in 1913, Croke Park had only two stands on what is now known as the Hogan stand side and grassy banks all round. In 1917, a hill was constructed on the railway end of Croke Park to afford patrons a better view of the pitch. This terrace was known as Hill 16 as it was built from the ruins of the 1916 Easter Rising, in the 1920s, the GAA set out to create a high capacity stadium at Croke Park. Following the Hogan Stand, the Cusack Stand, named after Michael Cusack from Clare, was built in 1927,1936 saw the first double-deck Cusack Stand open with 5,000 seats, and concrete terracing being constructed on Hill 16. In 1952 the Nally Stand was built in memorial of Pat Nally, seven years later, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the GAA, the first cantilevered New Hogan Stand was opened. The highest attendance recorded at an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was 90,556 for Offaly v Down in 1961. Since the introduction of seating to the Cusack stand in 1966, during the Irish War of Independence on 21 November 1920 Croke Park was the scene of a massacre by the Royal Irish Constabulary. The Police, supported by the British Auxiliary Division entered the ground, the dead included 13 spectators and Tipperary player, Michael Hogan. Posthumously, the Hogan stand built in 1924 was named in his honour, in 1984 the organisation decided to investigate ways to increase the capacity of the old stadium. The design for an 80,000 capacity stadium was completed in 1991, Gaelic sports have special requirements as they take place on a large field. A specific requirement was to ensure the spectators were not too far from the field of play and this resulted in the three-tier design from which viewing games is possible, the main concourse, a premium level incorporating hospitality facilities and an upper concourse

3.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle

4.
Waterford
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Waterford is a city in Ireland. It is in the South-East Region, Ireland and is part of the province of Munster, the city is situated at the head of Waterford Harbour. It is the oldest and the fifth most populous city in the Republic of Ireland and it is the eighth most populous city on the island of Ireland. Waterford City and County Council is the government authority for the city. Waterford is known for Waterford Crystal, a legacy of the citys former glass-making industry, according to the 2011 Census,65,928 people live in the Waterford Metropolitan District, however this figure does not include its suburbs in County Kilkenny and County Wexford. There are over 80,000 people within a 15 km radius of the city centre, with a population of 51,519, Waterford is the fifth most populous city in the State and the 32nd most populous area of local government. Following the Local Government Reform Act 2014, Waterford City and County Council is the government authority for the city. The authority came into operation on 1 June 2014, prior to this the city had its own local council, Waterford City Council. The new Council is the result of a merger of Waterford City Council, the Council has 32 representatives who are elected from five electoral areas. The city itself forms three of the electoral areas – which when combined form the Metropolitan District of Waterford –, residents in these areas are restricted to voting for candidates located in their ward for local elections. The office of the Mayor of Waterford was established in 1377, a mayor is then elected by the councillors from the two electoral areas of the Metropolitan District of Waterford every year, and there is no limit to the number of terms an individual may serve. Mary OHalloran who was mayor during 2007–2008 was the first woman to hold the post, the current mayor is Adam Wyse. The constituency elects four deputies to Dáil Éireann, there are no such ward restrictions for these elections and voters are entitled to vote for any candidate throughout the city and county. The name Waterford comes from Old Norse Veðrafjǫrðr, meaning ram fjord, the Irish name is Port Láirge, meaning Lárags port. Viking raiders first established a settlement near Waterford in 853 and it and all the other longphorts were vacated in 902, the Vikings having been driven out by the native Irish. Among the most prominent rulers of Waterford was Ivar of Waterford, in 1167, Diarmait Mac Murchada, the deposed King of Leinster, failed in an attempt to take Waterford. He returned in 1170 with Cambro-Norman mercenaries under Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, together they besieged, in furtherance of the Norman invasion of Ireland, King Henry II of England landed at Waterford in 1171. Waterford and then Dublin were declared cities, with Dublin also declared capital of Ireland

5.
Cork GAA
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It is one of the constituent counties of Munster GAA. Cork is one of the few counties in Ireland, competing in a similar level in both gaelic football and hurling. As of the end of the 2015 National Leagues, Cork compete in the top division of both sports, by comparison, Cork has only won All-Ireland Senior Football Championship seven times. Traditionally football is strongest in the half of the county. Hurling is the dominant sport in the east, with such as Sarsfields. Naturally, there are exceptions to this rule of thumb, with hurling pockets in football areas, one example is Fermoy in east Cork, which has seven Cork football titles to its name. As well as this, the St. Finbarrs club in the city has eight Cork football titles and 25 in hurling, Corks current GAA crest is based on the traditional coat of arms of Cork city. Like the coat of arms, the crest features the Kings old castle, the centre foreground of the crest features a ship, as does the coat of arms. This is due to Corks history as a city, also shown in the city motto Statio Bene Fida Carinis. The badge also features two footballs, along with a pair of hurleys. Corks traditional colours are red and white, but this was not always the case, in its early days of competing, the county wore a blue jersey with a saffron-coloured C emblazoned on the chest. This was changed in 1919 when the Cork hurlers were preparing to play Dublin in the All-Ireland Final, in the week leading up to the game, British forces broke into the county board offices on Maylor Street in the city centre and seized the Cork jerseys. Because of the loss of their kit, the county board borrowed jerseys from the now-defunct Father OLeary Temperance Association team, Cork went on to win the game, ending a sixteen-year spell without a trophy. Following this win Cork decided to wear the red jerseys in their future games. This red and white colour scheme has led to the Cork strip being nicknamed the blood, a colour clash with Louth in the 1957 All-Ireland Football Final saw Cork wear the blue jerseys again, but this occasion saw the team wear the blue jersey of the province of Munster. In 1976 Corks footballers became involved in an incident known as the three stripes affair, before the Munster football final Cork were offered a set of Adidas jerseys. The use of these jerseys caused controversy as it seemed to undermine the promotion of Irish manufacturers, Corks alternative colours are traditionally white jerseys and white shorts. These alternate colours were worn in the 1973 All-Ireland Football Final when Cork defeated Galway to claim their fourth title and they were worn again in the 2010 Final when Cork defeated Down for their seventh title

6.
Referee (association football)
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In association football, the referee is the person responsible for enforcing the Laws of the Game during the course of a match. At higher levels of play the referee may also be assisted by an official who supervises the teams technical areas. Referees remuneration for their services varies between leagues, Referees are licensed and trained by the same national organisations that are members of FIFA. Each national organisation recommends its top officials to FIFA to have the honour of being included on the FIFA International Referees List. International games between national teams require FIFA officials, otherwise, the local national organisation determines the manner of training, ranking and advancement of officials from the youngest youth games through professional matches. The referees powers and duties are described by Law 5 of the Laws of the Game, as per Law 9 of the game, if during the game the ball hits the referee there is no stoppage in play. However the officials would be expected to position themselves such that this would be unlikely to occur. Modern day referees and their assistants wear a uniform consisting of a jersey, badge, shorts and socks, since then, most referees have worn either yellow or black, but the colours and styles adopted by individual associations vary greatly. For international contests under the supervision of FIFA, Adidas uniforms are worn because Adidas is the current sponsor, FIFA allows referees to wear five colours, black, red, yellow, green and blue. Along with the jersey, referees are required to wear shorts, black socks. The badge, which displays the referees license level and year of validity, is affixed to the left chest pocket. All referees carry a whistle, a watch, penalty cards, a wallet with pen and paper. Most are encouraged to have more than one of each on them in case they drop a whistle or a pen runs out, often, referees utilize two watches so that they can use one to calculate time lost for stoppages for the purposes of added time. In matches with goal-line technology, the referee will have on their person a device to receive the systems alerts, Referees use a whistle to help in match control. The whistle is sometimes needed to stop, start or restart play but should not be used for all stoppages, fIFAs Laws of the Game document gives guidance as to when the whistle should and should not be used. Overuse of the whistle is discouraged since, as stated in the Laws, the whistle is an important tool for the referee along with verbal, body and eye communication. Before the introduction of the whistle, referees indicated their decisions by waving a white handkerchief, the whistles that were first adopted by referees were made by Joseph Hudson at Mills Munitions in Birmingham, England. The Acme Whistle Company first began to mass-produce pea whistles in the 1870s for the Metropolitan Police Force, Referees in football are first described by Richard Mulcaster in 1581

7.
Leinster Senior Hurling Championship
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It is one of the most prestigious hurling tournaments in Ireland and the most prestigious inter-county hurling competition in the province of Leinster. The championship has been awarded every year since 1888, originally played on a straight knockout basis, in the current format the four weaker teams play in an initial qualifier group. The top two teams in the group and the seeded teams complete the championship on a straight knockout basis whereby once a team loses they are eliminated. The Leinster Championship is an part of the wider GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship. The winners of the Leinster final, like their counterparts in the Munster Championship, are rewarded by advancing directly to the stage of the All-Ireland series of games. The losers of the Leinster final enter the All-Ireland series at the quarter-final stage, nine teams currently participate in the Leinster Championship, including Galway from Connacht and Kerry from Munster. The most successful team in hurling, namely Kilkenny, play their provincial hurling in the Leinster Championship and they have won the provincial title on 71 occasions during their history while also claiming 36 All-Ireland titles, both of these are all-time records. The title has been won at least once by six counties, all, the Leinster Championship begins with an initial qualifier group and then becomes a straight knock-out competition. The draw is made in October of the previous year. The competition has become more competitive since the emergence of Dublin as a hurling power, each match is played as a single leg. If a match is drawn there is a replay, drawn replays are now settled with extra time, however, if both sides are still level at the end of extra time a second replay takes place and so on until a winner is found. If the quarter-finals end in draws, extra time is played immediately as replays are only permitted for provincial semi-finals and finals, the format had remained virtually the same since the very first Leinster Championship in 1888. The biggest change to the format took place in 2009. Antrim GAA, being the only Tier 1 team in the Ulster Championship, antrim, however, will also still compete in the Ulster Championship which will be run as a separate tournament to the All-Ireland Hurling Championship. In 2014 the five counties in the Leinster championship played in a qualifier group before the main championship. This was reduced to four in 2015, nine counties currently participate in the Leinster Championship — Carlow, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Wexford. Qualifier Group Stage The four weaker counties in the play a round robin group stage. Every team plays the three teams once

8.
Offaly GAA
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For more details of Offaly GAA see Offaly Senior Football Championship or Offaly Senior Hurling Championship. The Offaly County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or Offaly GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, separate county boards are also responsible for the Offaly inter-county teams. As a result, the county won six Leinster titles in the 1980s, the county has since gone on to win three other All-Irelands. Perhaps Offalys most famous win came in the All-Ireland Final of 1994 in what has come to be remembered as the five minute final. Limerick looked set to win their first All-Ireland title since 1973 until Offaly staged one of the greatest comebacks of all time and they defeated Limerick by 3-16 to 2-13. The Vocational Schools team has made it to 12 All-Ireland Vocational Schools Championship finals but have never won one. The match was a repeat of the years final, however, not only that. Kerry were winning by two points with two minutes to go when Séamus Darby came on as a substitute and scored one of the most famous goals in Gaelic football of all time. Kerry fumbled the counterattack which allowed Offaly to win by one point with a score of 1-15 to 0-17. Offaly won their first major titles in 2002 when they won the second division of the National Camogie League. Drumcullen reached the final of the All Ireland club junior championship in 2003, kinnity owon the Division 3 shield at Féile na nGael in 1997, Drumcullen won the Coiste Chontae an Chláir Shield in 1997. Notable players include soaring star award winners Karen Brady, Elaine Dermody, Audrey Kennedy, Michaela Morkan, Fiona Stephens, miriam O’Callaghan served as president of the Camogie Association). Under Camogie’s National Development Plan 2010-2015, “Our Game, Our Passion, ” five new camogie clubs are to be established in the county by 2015

9.
All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship
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Where five Sundays occur in September, the final is held on the second Sunday in September. The Championship was initially a straight knockout competition open only to the champions of each of the four provinces of Ireland, during the 1990s the competition was expanded, firstly incorporating a back-door system and later a round-robin group phase involving more games. The Championship currently consists of several stages, in the present format, it begins in late May with provincial championships held in Leinster and Munster. Once a team is defeated in the stage they are granted one more chance to compete for the title. Thirteen teams currently participate in the Championship, the most dominant teams coming from the provinces of Leinster and Munster, Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary are considered the big three of hurling. Between them, these teams have won 93 out of 129 championships completed during its history, the title has been won by 13 different teams,10 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holders are Kilkenny, who have won the competition 36 times, the current All-Ireland champions are Tipperary. At the third meeting of the new organisation in January 1885, in 1886 county boards were created to run the affairs of the various counties that participated in the competition. By 1887 the first All-Ireland Hurling Championship took place with five teams participating, for the first few years of the championship the various counties were represented by the team who won the county club championship. For instance, the 1887 championship saw Thurles representing Tipperary and Meelick representing Galway, dedicated inter-county teams were only introduced in 1895 when Cork put forward a mixture of all the best players from that countys best local clubs. Over the early years various changes were made in the rules of hurling, teams were reduced from 21 players to 17 and eventually to the current number of 15, and the rules regarding the value of a goal were also tweaked in the first few years of the competition. The provincial championships were introduced in 1888 in Munster, Leinster, Connacht, the winners of the provincial finals participated in the All-Ireland semi-finals. Over time the Leinster and Munster teams grew to become the superpowers of the game, as Gaelic football was the dominant sport in Ulster. After some time Galway became the only team in Connacht and was essentially given an automatic pass to the All-Ireland semi-final every year. This knock-out system persisted for over 100 years and was considered to be the fairest system as the All-Ireland champions would always be the only undefeated team of the year. In the mid-1990s the Gaelic Athletic Association looked at developing a new system whereby a defeat in the championship for teams would not mean an immediate exit from the Championship. In the 1997 championship the first major change in format arrived when the system was introduced. This new structure allowed the defeated Munster and Leinster finalists another chance to regain a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals, Tipperary and Kilkenny were the first two teams to benefit from the new system when they defeated Down and Galway respectively in the quarter-finals